1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to automatic banking or teller machines (ATM's) and particularly to ATM's which may be located at remote locations with respect to a central bank and which include both depository units for deposited materials, and dispensing units for cash or paper money bills or notes of one or more denominations. Further, the invention relates to an ATM in which each denomination of paper money to be dispensed is supplied to the ATM in its own sealed, tamper-indicating container of the general type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,140.
Further, the invention relates to an ATM which may be equipped with deposit receiving mechanism and a plurality of sealed note containers provided with doubles detecting mechanism, etc., of the general types shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,437.
In addition, the invention relates to an ATM equipped with a sealed depository or deposit-receiving container for banking media of the general type shown in said U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,277.
Further, the invention relates to an ATM equipped with a sealed, tamper-indicating container into which paper money bills are deposited after being diverted from normal dispensing travel following removal from a supply of paper money, of the general type shown in said U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,601.
Finally, the invention relates to equipping an ATM, having depository, note-supply and diverted-note, sealed, tamper-indicating containers, with interlocking controls or mechanisms, coordinated, interrelated, and cooperatively arranged so as to require correct assembly and removal of such sealed container components in a manner such that the ATM is impervious to misloading; thereby providing maximum security for the contents of the sealed depository, note-supply and diverted-note containers at all times.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many types and kinds of ATM's are known in the banking field. However, said U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,113,140, 4,154,437, 4,312,277 and 4,313,601 are the only relevant prior disclosures of which applicants are aware that show sealed tamper-indicating containers in ATM's. However, the containers in said disclosures are separate and unrelated in receiving deposited material, in housing a supply of notes, and in receiving notes diverted for cause during a dispensing operation.
On the other hand, no prior art of which applicants are aware provides any controls for a plurality of diverse-function sealed containers each of which has its own special devices such as keys, knobs or levers that must be actuated, during assembling or removing such plurality of sealed containers in or from the ATM, to establish container interlocks which require a predetermined sequence of assembly operations to be carried out without variation or omission.